An agent of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) could have been a prized catch lawmen were dying to have him neutralized as a major accomplishment in a relentless drive to rid the province of illegal drugs but found out quite belatedly that he was not meant to be clamped down for good. Finding him to be an elusive target after all is said and done, a crack team of Camp Dagohoy operatives woke up one fine morning that their efforts were not enough to place behind bars Steven Lumitan Valles, said to be a PDEA agent who was arrested by a SWAT team sent to track him down in a buy bust operation August last year. In a 14-page decision dated April 20, 2012, Regional Trial Court Presiding Judge Suceso A. Arcamo of Branch 47 handed over a verdict of “not guilty” to accused Valles of the offense charged on the ground of reasonable doubt. “Suffice it to say that in totality, the mind of the court is not morally certain and convinced as to the guilt of the accused, hence, it has no recourse but to give him the benefit of the doubt,” the court said, citing the dictum that “it’s better to let guilty to go scot-free rather than send an innocent person to jail”. Valles was accused of violation of Section 5, Article II of RA 9165, the Dangerous Drugs Act in criminal case No. 15391 before the Arcamo court.

FINDINGS

The court findings noted that “there were lapses committed by the police officers during and after the operation as well as material inconsistencies in the testimonies of P03 Tamara and chief Inspector Jovito Atanacio,” The presentation of evidence for prosecution side was found out to be weak, the court said. “Doubt begun to creep in the mind of the court after hearing the testimony of P02 Nilo Hinay.” Hinay’s weak testimony said that “he did not actually see the actual exchange of items between the poseur-buyer and the pusher as all that he witnessed was that they were merely conversing with each other.” The court doubted the authenticity of the supposed transaction citing the following scenario: (a) The poseur-buyer (Sherwin Bautista) was already inside the vehicle at that time. What is worst, it turned out that there was another person inside the vehicle, (whom Hinay could not identify); (b) The vehicle was heavily tainted hence it cannot be seen from the outside whether those handed over to P02 Hinay were the shabu subject matter of the sale or those were already there in the vehicle even before the alleged buybust operation conducted; and (c) P02 Hinay could not even ascertain whether it was the poseur buyer Sherwin Bautista who was the one who handed to him the packs of shabu or the person inside the vehicle. The prosecution to pin down the accused (Valles) further undermined the case because the poseur-buyer Sherwin Bautista failed to explain and dispel the doubt of the court “was not presented” which have been vital.

COURT ORDER

With the recent decision, the court ordered the return of personal belongings confiscated from Valles’ possession and the marked money amounting to P5,000 used in the alleged buy-bust by the raiding police officers. It however ordered that the “remaining representative sample of the dangerous drugs” and cash money, including five P1,000; two P1,000 bills; 44 pieces of P500 bills; 58 pieces of P100 bills; 21 pieces of P50 bills; and 25 pieces of P20 bills are declared forfeited in favor to the government. Also as a consequence of the decision, the court likewise ordered the burning of the confiscated “shabu” or methamphetamine hydrochloride substances on April 26, 2012 in the afternoon to be witnessed by representatives from the private complainant, media, Integrated Bar of the Philippines Non-government organizations, PDEA and others who are required to be present under law. Also ordered returned to the PDEA regional office 7 in Cebu City were one unit .45 caliber pistol HS 2000 with serial number R55030 and one magazine and 13 pieces of live ammunition seized from him during the buy-bust operation. Valles also will recover for his possession the seized other items such cell phones, badges, identification and credit cards since they have no bearing in the instant case, said the court. Finally, the court ordered the release of the accused (Valles) from being detained further.

BACKGROUND

It may be recalled that law enforcers led by P/Insp Jovito M. Atanacio arrested a certain . Valles on August 5, 2011 in a buy-bust operation that took several hours to accomplish, according to a police report. Valles carried a PDEA identification card as shown in the certificate of inventory. The arrest of Valles, took place at the K of C drive, Poblacion II in this city, a stone-throw away from the PDEA office. The raiding police team hauled a cache of what the raiders described in the inventory as “large plastic transparent cellophane containing white crystalline substance believed to be shabu.” The haul was estimated to be about P100,000, the biggest so far, the report said. The haul of illegal drugs seized from Valles contained in three pages of inventory documents. These include three large plastic cellophane and one medium plastic believed contain shabu substance which are now subject to laboratory test; one .45 caliber pistol HS 2000 with serial number R550o30; one unit of .45 magazine; 13 rounds live ammunition of .45 caliber; 4 units cell phones – one Samsung and 3 Nokia brands; 4 pieces of padlocks; one piece PDEA badge with No.0320; one piece ballpen; cash amounting to P160,250 in various paper bills; one piece wallet black; one piece coin purse balck; and a piece of Mc Jim classic brown.

Another page of the inventory papers included several identification cards and PDEA ID named I01 Steven L. Valles; one piece of firearm license card named in his name; one piece of PDEA tag card with Number 012; professional driver’s license; and several other ATM cards of different banks. Third page of the inventory seized by authorities includes two ID lending cards named or alias “Jake V. Rosales but indicating the picture of Steven Valles;” “one sheet of PDEA letter order OR No. 0711-018 dated July 11, 2011 in the nname of Steven Valles; one sheet of PDEA firearm memorandum receipt in his name dated June 2011; a piece of sketch map; a machine copy of OR of motorcycle plate No. 5492 YD; and cash used as buy-bust operation, among others. PDEA representative I01 Ricardo Palapar did not affixed his signature in the inventory of confiscated paraphernalia. In the certificate of inventory was marked “Refused to sign” of Palapar. Reports said that Palapar’s refusal was said to be sanctioned by the PDEA regional director.